Threshold
by matchynishi
Summary: A routine trip to the bank turns crazy as Tala ends up as one of the hostages in a robbery. Needless to say, Tala is Not Pleased. How long will his control last? ON HOLD for the moment. My apologies.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fic. Please, be kind. That is all I ask.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Beyblade. Although I really wish I owned Kai and Tala.

* * *

Chapter: 1

Tala Ivanov was not having a good day. Looking at it from all angles, it would be correct to conclude that he was having an absolutely horrible day. In fact, if you asked him, he'd tell you that he'd been having a series of horrible days, all in a row. And he would be perfectly legitimate in saying so.

The eighteen year old stood in the side of the room, eyes closed, with a calm, almost serene expression on his face. He was perfectly still, even to the tips of his blood red hair. One would almost think he was meditating. Until that is, you looked at his hands. What was wrong with his hands, you ask? Absolutely nothing. Quite the oppsosite. In fact, his hands were very elegant. The skin was pale and translucent, like he'd never gotten any sun. His fingers were long and slender, almost abnormally so. But you'll have to take my word for it, since you can't actually see them. And why not? That would be on account of his hands being currently clenched tightly into fists.

Tala Ivanov, blader extraordinaire, the feared and enigmatic leader of the Demolition boys was mentally cursing all the Gods he knew (and some he didn't) with remarkable fervour. After exhausting his admittedly vast range of swear words, he thought back to the day, two months ago, when it all began. The day for which, ironically, he'd been waiting for with no small amount of zeal.

* * *

TWO MONTHS AGO

It had been a perfectly normal day in Russia. It had been snowing, and icy gusts of wind tore through the city. People in warm coats shivered in the wintry weather. The weak sunlight illuminated the frigid landscape. In short, a perfectly normal day. Until that is, Tala opened the morning paper and read the headlines. "The State finally starting proceedings against Voltaire Hiwatari" it proclaimed in large, black letters.

He blinked, thinking he'd read it wrong. But it was quite real. He read the article with growing incredulity. It had been two years since the Demolition boys' loss to the Bladebreakers in the finals in Russia. Two years since Voltaire Hiwatari and Boris Balkov had been taken into custody. By all rights, the two hated personages should have been rotting in jail from the day they'd been arrested. But the legal system regretfully did not work that way. The police had assured them that it might at most take a few weeks before the case was taken up in court. No one thought to contradict this statement. After all, trying (and failing) to take over the world must surely have dire consequences.

But nobody had taken into consideration the vast amounts of wealth that was at the disposal of Voltaire Hiwatari. He had thrown Boris to the dogs, since there was no further use for him. Boris had been given the lethal injection a mere month after his arrest, a sentence which the D-boys had unanimously concluded was too lenient for him. Lord Hiwatari, on the other hand, had at his disposal a battery of defense lawyers who had filed appeal after appeal, claiming that Voltaire had known nothing that was going on in Balkov Abbey.

His defense team had done an admirable job in delaying the trial as much as possible, but finally Voltaire was going to have to face justice. Cerulean eyes had glinted as a shiver of anticipation ran through the redhead at the thought.

* * *

The State's case against Voltaire Hiwatari rested not so much on evidence, as on the testimonies of witnesses namely, the Demolition boys and Kai Hiwatari, Voltaire's grandson. Out of the five, only Bryan, Kai and Tala were legal adults. Since Boris had messed with Bryan's head a little too much, the prosecution was wary of using him as a witness. That only left Tala and Kai. And so it came to pass that the case against Voltaire Hiwatari hinged on the testimonies of two teenagers. Consequently, in the last month, the two teens found themsleves in an overly stuffy courtroom, giving statements and being cross-examined by dozens of balding lawyers almost every weekday, who kept trying to prove their every sentence wrong.

Kai however, had an easier time of it. Upon turning 18, he had inherited a lot of money left to him by his parents. Once Voltaire was sentenced (which there was absolutely no doubt that he would be), he would become one of the richest people in the world. While this had absolutely no bearing on the situation Kai was in now, it certainly made life a lot more simpler. Tala, on the other hand had no living relatives and thus, had to work in order to eat. Which meant having a full-time job. Which was quite difficult, considering the fact that nowadays he spent most of his time in court, staring at Voltaire's ugly mug.

Now this situation alone would be enough for a normal person to start tearing his hair out in frustration. However, Tala was not a normal person. He had been trained to ignore his feelings, to rise above them. He kept a tight hold on his emotions when he found out about his dwindling savings, telling himself that it was only for a few more days. He kept an iron grip on his feelings when he found out, after searching for weekend jobs, that there were still large sections of the population who still had a healthy fear of the Demolition boys. While this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, it was not a great advantage while searching for prospective employers.

* * *

The weekend had gotten off to a bad start with Tala waking up late and finding out that there was no coffee in the house. Tala, in the past two years of freedom had become quite addicted to it, to the point that even Bryan was apprehensive of approaching a de-caffeinated Tala in the morning. He'd then thrown on some clothes, meaning to buy it from the store downstairs only to find that he was flat out broke. There was nothing else for him to do but go to the bank which, thankfully, was only a five minutes walk from his flat.

He was standing in line, pensively pondering the injustices of life, when his reverie was broken by people shouting. He raised his head tiredly and glanced around. The usual people standing in lines, the security guards and people in masks. Sighing, he was about to go back to his earlier thoughts when his brain actually processed what he saw. He frowned. That couldn't be right.

He raised his head again and looked around. Yes. His eyes had not deceived him. The ice-blue irises narrowed as he took in what he was actually seeing. Three, no four men clothed all in black and wearing masks. Carrying guns. Semi-automatics, by the look of them.

The bank was being robbed.

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Reviews will be very much appreciated. Extremely appreciated!

I am extremely nervous at first foray into fanfiction... See the small blue button? Press it. Go on. ... 'Kay, I'll stop bothering you then.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.

* * *

Chapter two

* * *

_He was standing in line, pensively pondering the injustices of life, when his reverie was broken by people shouting. He raised his head tiredly and glanced around. The usual people standing in lines, the security guards and people in masks. Sighing, he was about to go back to his earlier thoughts when his brain actually processed what he saw. He frowned. That couldn't be right._

_He raised his head again and looked around. Yes. His eyes had not deceived him. The ice-blue irises narrowed as he took in what he was actually seeing. Three, no four men clothed all in black and wearing masks. Carrying guns. Semi-automatics, by the look of them._

_The bank was being robbed._

* * *

Tala's eyes widened in disbelief. 

This could not be happening. He was probably dreaming. He was half asleep anyway and he was sure it would be very easy in his coffee-deprived state to sleep while standing. Yes, that was what was happening. He was asleep, and this was an especially horrific nightmare. Surely fate could not be as cruel as to stick him in a damned hostage situation --

"Quiet!"

Damn it. So much for being in denial.

The small hum of conversation that had been growing steadily in volume abruptly fell silent. The man who had spoken swaggered forward. He was about six feet tall and seemed to be the leader of the group.

"All employees step this way please. And any attempt by any of you to press the emergency button would result in rather painful results."

There was a collective cringe.

The white-faced employees were ushered to one side. The man looked over at the dozen people staring at him and waved his gun at them.

"We do not wish to harm any of you. However, do try to avoid any heroics since we will not hesitate to shoot."

The faces of some people whitened considerably while others looked as if they might faint.

"There will be no talking. Sit down wherever you are, we won't take too long."

Tala slowly slid down the wall he was leaning on. This was definitely not how he'd wanted to spend his weekend. He wondered what the rest of his friends were doing. He glanced at the wall clock. It was 10:15. Ian would probably still be sleeping and Spencer would be trying to wake him up. Tala didn't know why he tried. The big-nosed midget never got up till the clock struck at least 11.

Bryan... Now, that was easy. He'd be at the gym. It was a fair guess since the lavender-haired blader seemed to spend most of his free time either there or at the library.

Who else? Kai, of course... Tala's indignation rose at the thought of the crimson-eyed teen. While he, Tala Ivanov was cooling his ass on the floor while the bank was being robbed by masked numbskulls, Kai was probably safe and sound in his huge mansion, doing nothing but ordering the servants around while making plans to spend his wealth. Tala knew he was being uncharitable, and that Kai was in all probability stuck in his room going through enormous amounts of paperwork, but Tala's mood was getting increasingly sour and he did not want to be logical.

He was hungry, thirsty and suffering from caffeine withdrawal. He groaned silently. What else could possibly go wrong?

"Hey you!"

The shout snapped Tala out of his internal monologue. He looked up. One of the criminals was pointing his gun vaguely in his direction. Tala looked around, puzzled. Who was he calling? Surely not --

"Yeah, you redhead! Get up!"

Since Tala was the only person in the room whose hair could even vaguely be classified as red, it was a pretty safe bet they were talking to him.

It seemed he had spoken too soon.

He silently got up. The man beckoned him to come closer. Though not a flicker of emotion crossed the blader's face, he was inwardly perplexed as he walked over to the guy. What was this about? He hadn't done anything stupid...yet.

The man looked closely at him and called one of his fellow lawbreakers over. The second man walked nonchalantly over and spared a curious glance at Tala.

"What?"

"D'you think he kinda looks familiar?"

Tala's bafflement vanished.

Ah. So that was it. The prices of being an internationally acclaimed blader... But if they didn't know who he was, he for one, certainly wasn't going to tell them.

The other guy also peered at him. Tala noticed that both of them had brown eyes. The two men stared at him.

"Are you sure that you haven't just met him before, or something?" Brown #2 asked his partner while keeping his gun trained on Tala.

"No, I'm sure... I'd remember such a looker." Brown #1 replied. The two men exchanged a glance before turning back to Tala and giving him a thorough once-over.

Okay. This was getting wierder and wierder. Normally, Tala would take such compliments with a grain of salt. After all, he wasn't raised in an environment where much attention was paid to anything but blading. Granted, in the past two years he had realized the fact that he was slightly better looking than the average guy. It had certainly helped in getting dates. He mentally rolled his eyes. At least this was a new one. I mean, how many people could say that a couple of bank robbers had checked them out?

Brown #1 was speaking again.

"I've definitely seen him before. On T.V, perhaps?"

Uh oh. Dangerous territory there. But before he could say a word, Brown #2 cut in, with no small degree of interest.

"You mean, he's an actor, or something? Are you, kid?"

Tala shook his head. "I've never acted in my entire life."

"So what are you, then?"

"As of now, I'm just a high school graduate." He replied disparagingly.

Brown #1's eyes narrowed as he thought.

"No, not an actor, no... but I'm positive he's someone well known. C'mon, pretty boy, we're taking you to the boss."

And before Tala registered what was happening, he found himself whirled around and marched over to where the leader was standing. The 'boss' had just finished talking to the manager. Apparently the 'talk' had gone quite well, since he turned around with a satisfied look. He was puffed up like a turkey, completely secure in his self-importance.

Turkey glanced over him and looked at his 'captors', a questioning look in his eyes.

"Boss, we think he's some kinda celebrity."

"Oh?"

Bemused eyes shifted back to look at him more closely. "Hmm. He looks vaguely familiar..."

"That's exactly what I was thinking, boss!" Brown #1 spoke up excitedly. "He says he's not an actor or anything, but I'm positive I've seen him on T.V!"

Grey eyes narrowed in contemplation. "Not an actor? In sports, maybe?"

Tala had to fight not to have any reaction to this statement.

"Athletics? No, you're too young... Chess?"

He admiringly scanned Tala's physique, the lean muscles showing through the thin jacket. The Demoliton boy tensed as cerulean eyes flashed. If this Butch Cassidy-wannabe made a pass at him, he wouldn't be held accountable for his actions. He was already ticked off enough about the 'pretty-boy' comment.

Turkey finally finished his slow perusal of the teen and sniggered sickeningly. "Somehow, I don't think so..."

Meanwhile, our resident redhead was becoming seriously pissed off. His mood was bad enough without his having to endure lecherous old men making eyes at him. The knowing chuckles from the others in front of him didn't help matters much either.

Apparently, the three were waiting for Tala's response. They got it. But it was not exactly what they expected.

Tala said nothing. Instead, he simply _glared_. The sapphire glance turned absolutely frosty as Tala managed to put every ounce of venom and frustration he was feeling into it. The silence lengthened. The wordless warning was impossible to miss.

The men staring at him stopped breathing. If Turkey and his cohorts were ordinary men, they might have done what their instincts were screeching at them to do, and ran away screaming for their lives in the opposite direction. However, they had a bit more guts than the average individual, (at the expense of brains, some would say) and suppressed their instincts as best as they could. If they ran away at the very first sign of trouble, it was more than time to look for another area of work. However, none of them could ignore their body's commands completely and took an involuntary step back.

Tala was gratified to realize that he still hadn't lost his touch of scaring the wits out of people. Not that it was a clever thing to do, of course. In fact, antagonizing this motely bunch was probably the worst idea he could think of. But all the irritation, annoyance and resentment that he'd been bottling up for so long had started to leak out of his system. And he wasn't sure he minded all that much.

However this had some adverse consequences. One of the men who was trying to put a name to the face suddenly put a face to the glare. His face paled.

"B..Boss!"

That broke the spell. Tearing his eyes away from Tala's steely visage, Turkey looked shakily towards the other man. He seemed to have some trouble finding his voice.

"What..." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "what is it, Ivan?"

"Sergei, I...I think I figured out who he is.."

Ah. He'd gotten two names. Who knew that just glaring was enough for them to forget the cardinal rule of law-breaking - never say names aloud.

"He...he's a beyblader...One of the...very best.." Ivan's voice faltered slightly at the last few words.

It took only a few more seconds for the penny to drop. Grey eyes widened.

Tala sighed imperceptibly. Oh well. Nothing for it now.

"T...Tala Ivanov? ...The Demolition boy?"

* * *

What do you think? Good? Bad? So-so? 

Review! Review! Review!


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

_"He...he's a beyblader...One of the...very best.." Ivan's voice faltered slightly at the last few words._

_It took only a few more seconds for the penny to drop. Grey eyes widened._

_Tala sighed imperceptibly. Oh well. Nothing for it now._

_"T...Tala Ivanov? ...The Demolition boy?"_

* * *

There was absolute silence after Sergei's rather loud declaration. 

Tala would have laughed if he were anywhere else. He watched in thinly vieled amusement as varying degrees of shock passed over the countenances of the people near him.

It was kind of odd how the Demolition boys continued to be regarded as beings to be feared and avoided even after all the secrets of Balkov abbey came to light. If there was any sense of justice in this world, they should have been viwed as heroes who had endured the worst forms of physical and mental abuse all in the name of training from the tender ages of six.

They should have been respected for the effort they put in trying to lead normal, everyday lives ever since they had been set free. They should have been commended for looking past all their brainwashing and helping to put the main villains behind bars.

After all, it wasn't _their_ fault that they fell into the clutches of a couple of maniacs with grandiose plans of world domination. But sadly, the rest of Russia did not seem to share this view.

It didn't help that a copy of their training regimen in the abbey had somehow gotten into the hands of a journalist who published it in the leading newspaper shortly after the seizure of Balkov abbey.

At first the main reaction was horror and pity at the kids having had to endure such ruthless 'training'. That lasted all of one day. The next day a prominent and highly respected psychologist had gone on record saying that the D-boys would probably never adjust to everyday life, further implying that the conditioning that the D-boys had received would, in all probability make them anti-social and violent for the rest of their lives. This opinion was seconded by almost every other psychologist in the country, along with their own wide and varied speculations about the future of the Demolition boys which, suffice it to say, did not looked very pleasant. This did not endear them to the Russian public.

Tala and Bryan had the worst of it. Another article had published detailed descriptions of Tala's 'cyberisation' and the extent of the experiments done on him and Bryan. This had not gone down well with the majority of the residents in Russia. They were now absolutely convinced that the four teenagers were violent psychopaths who could snap anytime, anywhere. Two out of the four were concluded as not being entirely human. The quartet were handled with kid gloves everywhere they went, perceived as smoking volcanoes with the potential to erupt anytime, with devastating effects.

And so it was no great surprise to Tala when he saw the reactions of the people around him as his identity was revealed. In fact, he was rather amused at the sheer terror that twisted the faces of some of them. Terror that had not been there even when they had discovered that they were hostages...

They probably thought this particular situation would be enough for him to turn crazy and start killing indiscrimminately. After all, that had been exactly what each and every psychoanalyst had predicted - that the four, particularly Tala and Bryan, when put into a stressful situation would essentially become 'killing machines' with no conscience or contrition.

Ian and Spencer had laughed themselves silly when they learnt that their teammates had practically replaced Arnold Schwarzenegger's act in 'Terminator' in the scare-o-meter scale. The two on whom this honour was conferred were understandably none too pleased. Tala especially resented the 'cyborg' implication.

However, it had it's perks. Tala made no effort to suppress his amusement as all the people nearest to him began inching away slowly. It was kind of entertaining to be thought of as a ticking time-bomb liable to go off any moment.

He watched dispassionately as Ivan hastily called the other three men to a corner. He was talking rapidly, gesturing nervously with his hands all the while. The four men glanced over at him every now and then.

Tala frowned. They were too far away and talking too quietly for normal people to overhear what was being said. But, as I've kept saying, Tala was definitely_ not_ a normal person.

When Boris had cyberized him, all his senses had been sharpened to a point that he could do a lot of things the normal human could not. His 'de-cyberization', which Mr.Dickinson had had done was not a complete success, since they had not known the full details of what Boris had done to him.

Tala was in two minds about it. He had to admit, his 'abilities' were useful... especially in Physics and Math classes. There was no-one who could beat him in martial arts although Bryan and Kai came close a couple of times. He _could _probably become a chess grandmaster if he wanted to.

However, he was not allowed to. As he was technically not completely human anymore, a lot of doors were closed to him.

Right now, though... He grimaced slightly and concentrated.

"...can't just leave him, he might -

"Do what? In case you haven't noticed, he's unarmed. And a kid. Even if he does something stupid, what chance does he have against four armed men, all of whom, I might add, is bigger than him!"

"But he's Tala Ivanov! You _know_ what's been said about him in the papers... That he's half-cyborg or something! Maybe... maybe bullets don't affect him like it does normal people!"

Tala couldn't decide whether to be amused or annoyed at this extremely preposterous claim.

"Then please tell me why exactly he's just standing there, doing everything we ask him to? If he really wasn't affected by bullets, he'd have done something the minute he realized he was a hostage."

"Any more objections?"

"But..."

A sigh. "Yes, Dmitri?"

"He might be quiet for now, but what if he snaps later? The Demolition boys aren't really what you call predictable, you know..."

Ivan's voice cut in.

"Yeah, what he said!"

There was a pause. Then Sergei started talking again.

"Okay, here's what we'll do. You're right, Dmitri, he might crack sometime if we go by what the doctors said... Rest assured Ivan, that I don't think he's gonna go on a murderous rampage anytime soon. He seems... okay for now --"

"Okay? _Okay?_ Did you see that look he gave us about a minute ago? I swear, if looks could kill, we'd all be dead and buried right about now..."

There was an uneasy silence. Tala grinned to himself.

"Umm... fine, so he's a bit scary. But come on, he's a Demolition boy. I don't think he's normal at the best of times."

"No kidding..." A disgruntled voice cut in.

"As I was saying, we'll leave him alone till we get the cash. If we do anything to him now, we'll have a stampede on our hands, regardless of whether he's a psychotic killer or not. In case you've forgotten, there are about a dozen more people in the room other than _him_."

"So what are you saying?"

"Will you let me finish?"

There was a mumbled apology.

"Thank you. I'm saying we let him be till we get the cash. Then... we'll shoot him."

Tala froze.

"I mean, it's not like a lot of people will miss him. If anything, they'll probably want to give us an award for disposing of one of the most dangerous people in the Russian Federation."

There was a small pause, as if the other three were weighing the merits and demerits of the plan. Finally, one of them spoke up.

"When did that manager say he'll be ready with the money again?"

"About 20 more minutes, that's all. As soon as we get the money, Ivan and Dmitri, you carry the bags out. Yegor and I will be by the door. Yegor, you keep watching the hostages. I'll take care of the psycho, and then we escape. Any questions? No? Good."

The four men split up, casting wary looks at Tala as they went back to their previous positions. Tala remained in the middle of the room, face blank. Inside, he was seething.

How dare they? How _dare_ they? No-one tried to kill him and got away with it... Granted, they hadn't tried... yet, but it was only a matter of time - 20 minutes, to be exact.

Cold blue eyes flashed in determination.

But he'd get through it. He'd taken whatever Boris threw at him without flinching. He was damned if he was going to get himself killed now, of all times, and that too by these idiotic imbeciles.

If anything happened to him, the State's case against Lord Hiwatari would be significantly weakened. And Voltaire might have a good chance of getting away with everything he did...

Cerulean eyes narrowed a fraction.

_No friggin' way._

No way in hell was he gonna let that bastard go free, if he could help it.

* * *

Uh oh. I just looked at my outline and the next chapter is supposed to have a lot of action... gnaws nails nervously I am scared. I fear I'll suck at action scenes. I am worried. If you wanna leave some ideas around, it'll be very appreciated. 

Reviews are inspirational. So gimme some inspiration... please?


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.

* * *

Chapter 4

* * *

_"I'm saying we let him be till we get the cash. Then... we'll shoot him."_

_Tala froze._

_How dare they? How dare they? No-one tried to kill him and got away with it... Granted, they hadn't tried... yet, but it was only a matter of time - 20 minutes, to be exact. _

_If anything happened to him, the State's case against Lord Hiwatari would be significantly weakened. And Voltaire might have a good chance of getting away with everything he did..._

_No friggin' way._

_No way in hell was he gonna let that bastard go free, if he could help it._

* * *

Chapter 4

A plan.

That was what he needed. A plan that would allow him to take out all four criminals without getting _too_ badly injured himself.

_And_ without harming any of the hostages, supplied his brain belatedly. Ah, yes. He couldn't forget _that_. He grimaced slightly. Oh well, details. He'd work on that later. Right now, a plan. _Hmm...  
_  
Alsmost subconsiously, the lessons that he'd learnt in the abbey started coming back to him.

First, examine the situation. The first question - When should he attack? Before the manager arrives with the cash, or as the four men are leaving?

Tala considered both the possibilities and discarded them quickly. No, neither would work. In both the situations, at least two out of the four would be keeping close tabs on him. What he needed was a time when all of the four would be distracted.

_When all four would be... distracted... need.. a distraction... a dis-_

Azure eyes sparked once as a possibility occured to him.

_Hmm... That might work..._

Any fool could see these guys weren't true professionals. But accomplished or not, there was always one thing no human could control. An aspect of life that made humans so fallible. Something Boris had strived to crush from him.

Basic human emotions.

More pertinent to the circumstances, _**one** _particular emotion.

Greed.

The blader's eyes narrowed speculatively. _Yes_..._ It would definitely work.  
_  
Once the manager came out with the first bags of money, all eyes would inevitably be drawn to the bags, be it gazes of criminals or hostages. For all of two seconds, no-one would be looking at him. The cynosure of all eyes would be the bags of wealth in the grip of the man carrying them.

And at that moment, he would make his move.

* * *

Next, to calculate the odds. 

Two armed targets behind him, and two in front. A dozen unarmed people in one corner. Tala himself in the centre of the room, a bit off to the side. Unarmed. Not good.

Tala thought furiously, considering and rejecting hundreds of possibilities. His hands brushed over the small lump in his pocket. He could feel the reassuring weight of Wolborg in his jacket.

_Wolborg._

Tala abruptly snapped out of his mental debate. And promptly cursed himself for being all kinds of a fool. How could he have forgotten Wolborg? With the faithful wolf at his side, how could he have ever thought of himself as_ unarmed_?

He discreetly checked his other pocket. Yep. His laucher was indeed there. He suppressed an urge to whoop for joy.

He didn't need analysis to realize that the balance had shifted considerably in his favour.

* * *

Five minutes passed. Five minutes in which Tala's eyes had darted all around the room, taking in every detail - the positions of each and every person in the room relative to himself; trajectories of imagined bullets speeding through the air; the probabilities of the robbers acting like he'd envisaged them... 

Step three was the actual plan. He had to take out the most threatening targets first. Tala discreetly contemplated the four men one by one. Ivan he immediately dismissed as the weakest.  
Tala gazed steadily at Ivan and smirked as the object of his intimidating stare quailed fearfully.

_Hah._ This guy would probably wet his pants if Tala took one step toward him. Satisfied, Tala turned his attention to his companions.

Dmitri was not as scared of him as Ivan was, but considerably more so than Yegor and Sergei. Those two were the real threats. They weren't fool enough to believe everything that had been written about him, but there was one plus. They didn't believe a lot of_ true_ facts that had been made public about Tala. This he would turn into an advantage.

They had no idea of what a cornered Demolition boy was really capable of. Actually they had a little idea, courtesy of the journalists, but they'd chosen to disbelieve them. Sergei especially, blinded by his complacence was clueless to the peril he currently was in.

The sapphire eyes narrowed. And he, Tala Ivanov would be only too pleased to show him.

* * *

The Demolition boy's analytical mind had finally decided upon the best way to disarm his opponents without getting anybody hurt. It was not easy. In fact, if his timing was even one-eighth of a second off, the consequences would not be pleasant. 

But he'd never allow that.

Tala's azure eyes sharpened into flints.

He would succeed. Failure was not an option. Things _would_ go exactly as planned. He'd make sure of that.

* * *

After roughly fifteen more minutes, Tala sensed a small disturbance at the doorway of the manager's room. Tala tensed. 

_This was it.  
_  
He had only one chance. If he blew it...

Tala shook his head slightly. He would not, _could not_ think like that. Meanwhile, most of the people in the room had turned expectantly towards the open doorway. Tala sneaked a quick look at the two robbers in front. Sergei and Ivan were both staring fixedly at the door. Dmitri actually walked forwards from his position behind Tala and looked in.

That left only one person, Yegor behind him. This was good.

Tala shifted slightly, his hands going to his pockets and curling around Wolborg and his launcher. _No mistakes now, Ivanov..._

The manager walked out slowly, peering shortsightedly at the ground and clutching two enormous black bags in his hands. As Tala had theorized, every single person's gaze (with one notable exception) was locked on to the bags.

The red haired blader took a deep breath to compose himself... and moved.

Tala was a red and black blur as he whirled around and leaped at Yegor, releasing Wolborg at the same time.

Yegor had absolutely no warning whatsoever. One second he was gazing blissfully at the two incogruous bags that contained all his dreams within them and the next second something heavy pressed on his back. Before he could even take a breath, he felt his head being slammed down into the floor and the world went black.

Tala snatched the gun from the unconsious man and fired two shots in succession before rolling over and pointing the gun at the lone man left standing.

"Put the gun down. _Now_."

Sergei stared in dumb shock at the red-haired teenager who had just apparently teleported from the middle of the room to land right on top of Yegor. He couldn't have _jumped_, by any chance? If he had, Yegor would have seen him and taken him down mid-jump. No way could anyone jump that far, that fast. _Right?_

"This is the last time I'm telling you. Put the gun down, _gently_... or I shoot. And this time I won't just stop at the hands like I did for your friend."

Sergei shivered at the emotionless voice which, for all it's quietness sounded far more deadly than any cop or crook he'd ever met. He looked down at his side where Ivan was clutching bloody hands, his gun lying uselessly on the floor. He was gazing in terror at Tala - more specifically, Tala's feet where Yegor was lying unconsious... dead?

He shuddered. He had absolutely no doubt that this deranged maniac would do exactly what he said if he didn't co-operate. He should have listened to Ivan... But where was Dmitri? If he was behind him, it was two against one, they could still take the psycho down...

Tala smirked as Sergei's eyes moved around the room, searching for his fourth comrade.

"If you're looking for your last _friend_..." The last word was said mockingly. "..trust me, he's _definitely_ not in any position to help you, either mentally or physically."

What did he mean, couldn't help mentally or physically? Confused, Sergei turned his head back slightly and froze.

Dmitri was sprawled on the floor, white-knuckled hands clutching his forgotten gun in a death grip, brown eyes wide and horrified and fixed on - What the _hell_ - an enormous slate-grey wolf which was looming over the fallen man, jaws wide in an noiseless snarl.

Sergei stopped thinking altogether. His gun dropped from nerveless hands as his brain fought to process what his eyes were force-feeding him. _Where the hell did that.. that.. thing come from?  
_  
"Thank you. Now kick it to me."

Sergei turned back to Tala, dazed. And managed an extremely intelligent "Huh?"

Tala rolled his eyes. "I said, kick the gun over to me, gently."

_Kick it? When had he even dropped it? Oh God, his only defence against a vicious wild animal and he'd.._

Tala's voice was noticeably cooler. "If you don't do what I'm asking, _right now_, I could always sic Wolborg onto you. What do you say, Wolborg?"

The ice-wolf looked up to Tala and growled in affirmative.

Sergei had had enough. The psycho in front of him was not only crazy, he could apparently teleport, could call out wolves from thin air... _and_ he had a gun. Sergei was unarmed, and not one of his three comrades could help him due to the fact that one was injured, one either dead or in a coma and one held hostage by the said wolf. _Unreal.  
_  
He couldn't win this. He shakily did as he was told.

Tala grinned coldly as he picked up the gun. He clicked the safety off, took out the magazine, put it in his pocket and tossed the gun down. He did the same with Ivan's gun.

Tala stepped over to Ivan ignoring his terrified gaze, knelt and pushed a spot on his neck. Ivan's eyes rolled up and he slumped, unconsious. Sergei paled. _So the psycho knew about pressure points too.  
_  
Sergei stepped back as Tala moved towards him. The redhead's eyes narrowed and slid to the wolf who growled in response.

"Move one muscle, and I let Wolborg have you for breakfast."

Sergei paled. He had time for one last thought before cold fingers found the spot at his neck that brought darkness crashing down on him. _I'm never robbing a bank again.  
_  
"Wolborg, back off from him."

The huge wolf did so with a chilling growl.

Tala walked towards Yegor who was still staring at Wolborg, apparently in a trance. The blader smiled slightly. That would make it easier on him. Yegor didn't look up once as Tala knelt over him, raised a cold hand to his neck and pressed.

_Four down._

He then pried the gun off the unconsious man's stiff fingers, took out the magazine and tossed the empty gun with the others. Tala got up and stretched in satisfaction, adrenalin still pumping through him. He smiled genuinely as the ice wolf trotted over to him, tail wagging.

The Demolition boy crouched down to pet the enormous grey wolf. "Thanks Wolborg... I couldn't have done it without you."

"E.. Ex... Excuse me, Mr.. Mr.. Ivanov.."

Tala frowned and looked up at the stuttering voice of the manager. He noted with amusement that the man still held the two bags.

"Well?"

The manager looked temporarily incapable of speech. Tala noticed that the small man's gaze was fixed on Wolborg, who was currently enjoying his master's stroking; eyes closed in bliss and tongue hanging out.

_Not too scary, that._

But from the man's accelerated breathing, he didn't seem to think so. Tala figured he should distract the manager before he had a heart attack.

"Aren't you going to call the police?"

The man tore his eyes away from the wolf long enough to fix an uncomprehending glance at Tala.

Tala quirked an eyebrow. "You know, the good guys who come rushing in with flashing red lights on their cars to catch bad guys?"

The man's eyes widened in comprehension. "Ohhh yes, the police! We should call the police!" And kept standing right where he was.

Tala suppressed a snarl of exasperation. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to calm himself down and looked down at the manager.

"You are the manager, right?" A nod.

"So you do know where the phone is?" There was another nod, but no other response whatsoever.

Tala was _this_ close to losing his cool.

_You will not strangle the manager. You will not shoot him full of lead even though he might be very deserving of that fate. You-will-not-kill-the-idiotic-moron-of-a-manager.  
_  
Some of his homicidal thoughts must have shown on his face, because the middle-aged man blanched.

"I... I'll go and... and call the police, shall I?"

_Deep breathing, in, out, in, out.  
_  
"You do that."

Relieved to finally get out of Tala's intimidating presence, the poor man dropped the bags at the redhead's feet and stumbled as fast as his legs could take him into his office.

Tala sighed and turned back to the four unconsious bank robbers. He sighed again as he methodically shook the four men down. Might as well have the job done thoroughly.

After five minutes, Tala had an small collection of knives, daggers, chains and even a razor wire in front of him. He added the empty guns he'd taken earlier to the pile. He then dragged all the four men to the middle of the room and turned to the wolf.

"Guard them."

The wolf gave a low grunt and squatted next to the passed-out men.

Tala turned to the back of the room where every hostage in the room was still gaping at the stoic teen. He looked at them for a moment.

_They probably think you're going to kill them next_, thought Tala cynically. Oh well. Nothing he could do about it.

"The police are going to be here in a few minutes. You might want to stay here till they arrive, they'll want your statements."

He gazed down at them. None of them had moved from their positions. He raised a brow and continued sardonically.

"You know, you _can_ get up now if you want t..."

And before he had finished speaking, the lot of them had hastily scrambled up, standing tensely, waiting to obey the Demolition boy's every command.

Tala was nonplussed for a moment before he realized what they were thinking of him - a psychotic cyborg with a pet wolf. His lips twisted as he abruptly turned away, scooping up his still-spinning beyblade and stalking to the only soul who accepted him for himself - Wolborg.

He slid gracefully down next to the grey wolf and stroked the silky fur moodily. Wolborg seemed to sense his master's dejection and twisted his head slightly, fierce gaze locking on Tala's, offering wordless comfort. Tala smiled slightly and feeling inexplicably tired, buried his face in Wolborg's soft fur, wanting nothing but to be left alone.

Tala tuned out all the noise around him till he could only hear the soothing sound of Wolborg's breathing. The young teenager started to slowly drift off into slumber, exhausted physically and emotionally.

As a result, he failed to hear the wailing sounds of the police sirens until they were directly in front of the bank. He shifted irritably at the noise, wanting nothing other than to go back to sleep when the doors suddenly banged open.

Tala jerked awake.

And found himself looking down the barrels of about ten guns.

"POLICE!" yelled one of the uniforms. "FREE..."

The officer would undoubtedly have gone on to yell 'Freeze', just like in all the cheesy TV shows if his mouth hadn't suddenly gone dry. The cops gasped as one as they took in the scene before them.

They were staring down the jaws of an enormous grey wolf which, if its thunderous growls were any indication, did not appreciate being barged in on.

On one side of the wolf was lying a few bodies - dead or not, they couldn't tell yet. On the other side was a small pile of weapons that would not have looked out of place on the set of a gangster movie. At the back of the room were about a dozen people, all still as statues.

And in the middle of it all, a striking crimson haired teenager stood fearlessly, one pale hand tangled in the wolf's mane.

Collective jaws dropped. Nobody moved. The wolf's snarls were meanwhile becoming more and more irritable. The boy spoke.

"It would be better, officers, if you just put your weapons away. Wolborg can sense hostile intentions."

Still no response.

Tala raised his eyebrows and knelt down, looking fondly down at the wolf.

"He will not attack unless someone else does first."

Tala still didn't take his eyes off the wolf, striving to calm him down.

"Bullets will not have any effect on him... he is not an ordinary animal."

Everyone within hearing range gulped. But none of the police officers put away their weapons, all of them still gaping at the teen.

Suddenly there was a commotion behind them and someone pushed through the frozen ranks of the police.

Two identical sets of startled ice-blue eyes looked up at the interruption; one pair impertubable - as piercing and merciless as the Siberian winters, and the other furious and ferocious, as impassioned as the other was glacial.

"Oh my..."

* * *

Heheh...Yeah... _That_ didn't come out exactly as planned... I kinda scrunched two chapters into one - so this one's a bit long. 

I hope this chapter was not a disappointment - as I've told you, I'm not terribly confident of my writing skills in the action genre. Although this didn't contain too much action...

Yeah, and I wanted to clarify some things - when Wolborg comes out, it's not in his bit-beast form, but as a real wolf... I know he's supposed to be a mutant bit-beast and all, but I kinda didn't want the whole um, wing-things and stuff on him here. So, in this story, if you're a skilled enough blader with a deep connection to your bit-beast, you can call them out in the form of solid animals. Okay? Okay.

Oh yes, and one last thing. I'm gonna be having exams and reports and other boring stuff to do next week, so I won't be updating for some time. See you guys in two weeks! (hopefully)

And don't forget to review!


	5. Chapter 5

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.

* * *

Chapter 5

* * *

_Suddenly there was a commotion behind them and someone pushed through the frozen ranks of the police._

_Two identical sets of startled ice-blue eyes looked up at the interruption; one pair impertubable - as piercing and merciless as the Siberian winters, and the other furious and ferocious, as impassioned as the other was glacial._

_"Oh my..."_

* * *

A man had broken through the line of cops in front of Tala. "Oh my..." He gasped out again as he took in the striking teen kneeling next to a vicious wolf. 

_Wow, what a moment... Please God, let them hold it for two seconds more..._ He thought, fingers fumblng over the apparatus around his neck.

Tala took in the stunned face, the nondescrepit brown hair, the hands hastily fingering the black box swinging around his neck...wait a minute, black box?...Oh no..

FLASH!

_Dammit.  
_  
Tala rapidly blinked the white spots dancing in front of his eyes as he shook his head to clear it. This was the last thing he needed. It was fortunate that Tala's restraining hand on Wolborg did not falter, since Wolborg had every intention of lunging for the man in front of them.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Although right now, he was wondering if he shouldn't just let Wolborg loose on the guy. However the man's actions had the fortunate side-effect of bringing the frozen police back to life.

"Hey, who the hell allowed the papparazzi in?"

"What happened here?" the photographer addressed Tala. "Did you kill the men back there? Are the police gonna arrest you? Why is there a wolf..."

"Get the hell out, moron, before somebody shoots you by accident!"

The photographer was dragged out kicking and screaming by one of the police officers.

"In fact, that's not a bad idea.." muttered one of the police officers to another. Tala wholeheartedly agreed.

"Aww, dammit..." the cop continued. "Now there'll be a whole flock of them here, demanding to know what the hell happened here..."

Tala paled. He hadn't thought of that.

"Actually, _I_ would like to know what the hell happened here too." interrupted the officer in charge of the squad. His eyes roved around the room, pointedly not looking at Tala. "Who's in charge of this place?"

"Th... That would be me." A tiny voice squeaked. The manager stood in front of his office, wringing his hands.

"So what has this _boy_ been doing now?" The smirking policeman turned to Tala. "Got bored and thought you'd go kill a few innocent people, huh? Oh, and rob a bank while you're at it, hmm? Now I'm afraid you're gonna have to come with us to the station..."

"No, it wasn't him!"

The officer stopped in mid-sneer and turned to the pale faced manager. "_What_ wasn't him?"

"Err.." The small man seemed temporarily dumbstruck from the officer's accusing gaze. The officer snarled in exasperation.

"You _were_ the one who called emergency saying that the bank was being robbed here, right?"

"Well no.."

"You didn't? Then who?"

"No, no, I _did_ call, but I said that there _**had been**_ bank robbers here and that they'd _**tried**_ to rob the bank."

"Tried? So I'm guessing they didn't succeed?"

"N..No, M... Mr. Ivanov stopped them.."

"He _what_?"

"He um, he stopped them sir." The manager waved a trembling hand towards the four unconscious men lying bound and gagged.

"And I suppose we have four corpses on our hands?"

The officer looked challengingly at Tala, who smiled slightly and replied in an even voice. "Actually, they've just been knocked out for a while. Wouldn't want them to miss our just legal process now, would we? said Tala, blandly.

The officer shot a suspicious look at Tala before ordering one of his underlings to check on the four men. The man checked their pulses and nodded. "They're out cold, but fine otherwise... well, mostly fine." He added, glancing at Ivan's bloody hands.

The captain scowled and turned back to the manager. "All right, I want you to tell me what happened. From the beginning... Don't leave _anything _out, you hear me?" The manager gulped, but nodded feversihly.

"Umm, well... it was just a bit after ten, and there was this commotion and when I came out, there were four men with guns..."

Tala zoned out after the first sentence. His mind went blank. The minutes went by. He was not capable of thinking too clearly anymore. All he really wanted to do was get out of here, grab a cup... or six cups... of coffee, eat something... and sleep. Was that too much to ask? With an effort, he shook himself out of his daze to see if the manager had finished his tale.

"... and then they found out who Mr. Ivanov was..." Apparently not. Tala promptly zoned out again. He couldn't tell how much time passed. It might have been a minute, or ten minutes, or half an hour.

"... and then Mr. Ivanov bound them up and told me to call emergency. And... umm, that's it."

There was a disbelieving silence.

"You're joking. Or mental. Do you honestly expect us to believe that this... this _kid_ defeated _four armed men_ in well under a minute? Pet wolf or not!"

The manager bristled in indignation. "Excuse me, sir, I never joke! And it's not just me, all the hostages are witnesses too, you can ask them!"

There was another breathless silence as each officer struggled to come to terms with the facts. Awed stares lingered over the redhead standing beside them. Finally, the captain swallowed nervously and approached the teen, circling warily around the wolf who seemed to have gone to sleep at his master's feet.

"Uhh... Mr. Ivanov?"

No reply.

"Ahem." A bit more louder this time.

Still no response.

The officer lost his patience. Nobody likes being ignored, after all, even by plucky teenagers who'd captured bank robbers. He strode over in front of Tala and stretched out a hand to shake his shoulder. That was a bad move.

Tala had been in a trancelike state where all he could see in front of his eyes was a white mist that was soothing, almost lulling him to sleep when suddenly his internal alarms went off.

_/Threat to his left. Counterattack **now**/  
_  
And the startled police officer found his arm jerked away, and the wind punched out of him the next second. He saw brilliant multicoloured stars before he felt his collar snatched in a vise-like grip and _hauled_ into the air like he weighed nothing.

He looked down into cold blue eyes - emotionless eyes, eyes which had no feeling, _nothing _in them. Just blank, but oddly hypnotising. He shivered involuntarily. If he had any doubts as to whether the extraordinary tale supplied by the manager was true, then this dispelled all of his disbelief.

The cops surrounding him froze and gripped their weapons tighter. Fortunately, one smart fellow recognized the defensive action for what it was. He had grown up in the streets, and recognized the dearth of feeling in the chill eyes as the acts of one moving on pure instinct.

"Mr Ivanov..." he started in a soothing voice at the same moment Tala remembered the situation he was in and loosened his grip on the captain's collar. He flushed a little as he set the man down. "Oops."

The officer glared at him. _Oops?_ "You do realize I could take you in for assaulting an officer?" Privately he wondered just what was in the kid's diet to make him _quite_ so strong. His stomach felt like it had been slammed with a battering ram. Repeatedly.

"I'm very sorry, I didn't hear you... I acted on... instinct, I suppose. I'm really, really sorry."

"Hmph." The officer looked slightly mollified. "Don't go anywhere now. We've got to get this cleared up. Oh, one more thing... where in the God's green earth did that _wolf_ of yours spring up from? Mr. Manager was saying something about it appearing from the air or some such crap... So?"

Tala looked squarely at him. "Wolborg is my bit-beast. I am able to call him out as a real wolf when I need to."

All the policemen looked bug-eyed from Tala, to the sleeping wolf, and back.

"Great, just what I need." The captain grumbled as he turned and walked away. "Wild animals appearing from little teeny bits of plastic. How the_ hell_ am I supposed to work this into my report without them tying me up in a straitjacket? Ow..." winced the man, rubbing his stomach. "And somebody, _get me some ice!_"

Tala hid a grin as he walked over to the side as the cops swarmed all over the room. _Like ants_, he thought. He frowned. He had the feeling he was forgetting something. He looked at the clock.11:15. Exactly an hour had passed since he'd looked at it last. His face cleared as his stomach gave a loud growl. _Breakfast!_ Damn. He looked around in dismay. It was highly unlikely that he'd be released anytime soon. And he didn't think any of the cops would appreciate being sent out to get him food. Not that he could do it anyways. To buy food, you needed money. Which was why he'd gotten into this mess in the first place. He looked morosely upward.

_Somebody up there really hates me._

* * *

There you go. I'm not entirely too pleased with this chapter... It didn't go according to plan at all... scratches head in puzzlement ...My gorgeous Kai was supposed to be in this one... but he's nowhere to be seen. Huh. Oh well, I guess, in the next chappie, enter Kai, stage left. 

Kai... sighs and drools I wanna see G-Revolution! I've heard Kai's awesome in it... I've even seen some clips of a couple of episodes... I thought after seeing them I'd be able to have a bit more patience... but now, I just can't wait! wails I want G-Rev, NOW!

Oh, and I almost forgot... Review, please!


	6. Chapter 6

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.**

* * *

**

Chapter 6

* * *

A slate haired teen sat in a swivel chair in his room, arms cossed and staring hatefully at the huge amount of papers in front of him. A mountain of work that he had, through six hours of hard work, turned into a small pile. But which, thanks to his dutiful butler Andrei, had once again morphed into another mountain, this time bigger than the previous one. He glared at it. Hours and hours of future drudgery stared innocently back at him. He scowled ferociously and turned to face Andrei. 

Who betrayed no emotion at the withering look the youth gave him. Kai's death glare would have been more impressive if Andrei hadn't been on the receiving end of it quite a few times when Kai was growing up. But as it was, he didn't even twitch. Although his lips did curve upward in an imperciptible smile.

"Begging your pardon, Master Kai, but killing the messenger wouldn't help you much."

Kai continued to glare at the butler for a few more seconds before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Then slumped in his chair and started banging his head on the desk, grumbling obscenities under his breath.

"Master Kai?"

No answer. The banging continued. Andrei allowed hismelf a little sigh. He really felt very sorry for the young man who should have been out in the sun enjoying his youth. Instead, he spent day after day in tiny windowless courtrooms with only that admirable young Tala Ivanov for company. And on weekends, working through enormous amounts of paperwork from morning till night. He shook his head regretfully. He could understand if the young master snapped from time to time. It was surely no life for a young, active man.

"Master Kai, maybe you should take a break for a while... You've been working from 5 in the morning, after all."

Finally, the crimson gaze left the carpet and met his. "Oh? And will you swear, Andrei, that the papers here won't grow exponentially for every minute I'm not here?" The tone was dry.

Andrei gave his employer a sympathetic look. "Well, no, but I _can_ tell you that if you keep working without having any food, you'll surely keel over from exhaustion one of these days."

There was an amused snort. "I'm a big boy, Andrei, I can take it."

"I'm sure you can, Master Kai, but I'm not sure Ilya can. She's been worrying herself sick everytime you forego a meal."

The two men shared a wry look.

"Hn. Then I guess I'd better go reassure her before she decides to come yelling after me with a saucepan." The teen's eyes twinkled with weary humour.

The plump cook employed by the Hiwataris was quite capable of doing just that. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. _To eat, or not to eat... that is the question..._ There was a brief struggle in his mind before he made his decision. _Oh well_. Even half an hour away from the hideously boring drudge work would be heaven. He scraped his chair back, stood up and stretched.

The phone rang just as he reached the door. He sighed. Andrei turned and gazed at him, expressionless.

"You go ahead, Andrei, I'll be on in a minute." The butler nodded and went on his way.

The teen stalked over to his desk, running a hand through his slate-grey hair. He flipped open his cell phone. "Kai."

"Kai, omigod, I couldn't _believe_ what's happened, I swear, we leave him alone for _one_ day and he goes and gets himself into all sorts of trouble, I'm telling you, we had _no_ idea where he was, we tried calling him, he was supposed to come over but..."

Kai blinked. "Ian?"

"...and no one was picking up, and now we know why... Oh God, I so hope he didn't knock anyone into a coma, or something... Of course it's me, you idiot, who did you think it was, Father Christmas?"

Kai sighed and resumed walking towards the kitchen. "Ian, why did you call me?"

"Because of the _situation_, of course! Why'd you_ think_ I called?"

_Situation?_ Kai frowned. "Ian, I have absolutely no clue about what you're rambling on about."

There was a pause. Then a heavily loaded "Oh."

"Ian?" Kai asked, cautiously. It was never a good sign when the midget stopped talking. "What happened?"

"Umm, Kai, do as I say, all right? Go to the T.V - that is, if you can manage to find it in that maze you call a house... and turn to Channel 2."

Kai quirked a brow at that. "What for?"

"Dammit, Kai, just do as I say!"

Kai rolled his eyes. "Fine."

Intrigued in spite of himself, Kai walked quickly to the kitchen. He gave a half wave to Ilya, turned on the small T.V in the room and switched to Channel 2. Apparently, it was a news channel. The tinny voice of the announcer filled the room.

Kai listened to the commentary with a frown. He spoke into the cell phone. "Ian, it's just some news about some bank robbery. Why is it so important?"

"KAI! _Listen more closely, dammit!_"

Kai winced and held the phone away from his ear, looking at the two other people in the kitchen with raised brows. Ian had been yelling so loudly that the sound echoed around the huge kitchen. Ilya and Andrei shrugged back at him. Kai seated himself at the table and started eating while keeping one eye disinterestedly on the T.V.

_/... apparently, there were 13 more hostages. It was truly a miracle that none of them got hurt at all, more so since the four men were carrying fully loaded semi-automatic handguns. By the time the police came, the four criminals had been shaken down, bound and gagged by today's heroic rescuer._

_Until now, no one other than the cops quite knew what had happened, or if it really had been a failed robbery attempt. However, this reporter managed to get the complete story out of a rather dazed police officer. /_

_Blah blah._ Honestly, he had no idea why Ian was in such a state about a damned robbery. But for some strange reason, he was. Might as well humour the little guy.

_/...and that was when the four armed men recognized the teen as one Tala Ivanov, current captain of the feared Demolition boys, the number one beyblading team in the country. /_

Kai choked on his food. _Say **What**?_

_Tala... Bank robbery..._ Oh God, those were three words he never wanted to hear in the same sentence.

He looked up, breakfast forgotten as all three occupants in the room gave the T.V their undivided attention.

_/...It is not known exactly what happened after that, but apparently, when the manager was bringing out the bags filled with money, Mr. Ivanov took out all four men with the help of a er, a wolf. Yes, you heard me right, a wolf. It is known that Mr. Ivanov has a wolf bit-beast but it was never known that the bit-beasts could be called out as er, real animals... very solid and extremely terrifying animals, according to the officer I spoke with. /_

Kai closed his eyes. Tala never did anything by half, that was for sure.

_/ ..I am quite sure most of you have disbelieving expressions in your faces, so we are now showing you an exclusive photograph taken by our photographer just after the cops had stormed into the bank. This is currently the only proof that the bizarre story as told by the police officer is actually true. May we remind you that the picture has not been altered in any way./_

With that, the busty blonde newsreader vanished frm the screen. The image shown next on the T.V screen made Ilya gasp out loud with astonishment. Even the normally sedate Andrei couldn't help a small start. Kai's eyes widened.

It was apparent that the photographer had pushed through the very centre of the line of cops. You could see some cops right at the edge of the semicircle, guns at the ready. There was a gaggle of people way inside the room. _The hostages_, Kai's mind supplied. Some unconscious men clothed in black in a tangle of limbs on the ground off to one side._ The robbers_.

And in the middle of it all, an ethereal vision of grey fur, black clothes, red hair, white fangs, pale skin and ice-blue eyes. The huge wolf seemed ready to lunge straight at you, held only in check by the pale hands of the teenager kneeling down next to it.

_Oh, hell.  
_  
"Andrei, get the limo ready." Kai ordered, finally tearing his eyes away from the small screen. His hands scrambled for the phone as he got up and left the room without a second glance. He walked quickly over to the front of the mansion.

"Ian? You there?"

"Mm... Did you see that photo? Now the media's gonna be all over us, damn it all to hell... So what the heck are we gonna do, Kai? Even if we go there, I'm pretty sure the cops won't let us go to him, seeing as how they think we're crazy, and all..."

Kai's knowing voice cut into his tirade. "They might not let _you_ in, true..."

"Yeah, isn't that what I've been sayi... wait.." Ian's voice gradually changed with dawning comprehension. "What, no, that's so not fair! Dammit, Kai, you always have all the fun... Black Dranzer, and screaming fans and getting to boss Tyson around and..."

Kai snorted in exasperation at the younger teen. "Ian, stop being stupid. Being one of the richest in the country _does_ have its perks... they'll let me through because they don't want the yearly donation Biovolt gives the Justice Department to stop." He smirked. "And you're more than welcome to the fans... Morons won't leave me alone. Although..." He added, cynically. "I think it's because of all that money I'm going to inherit."

Ian's sulky voice echoed down the phone. "Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses..."

Kai grinned and leaned against the doorway, waiting for the car. And blinked once as a thought occured to him.

"Ian?"

"Yeah?"

"Which bank does Tala go to?"

* * *

Heh. He thinks he's got a load of crazy fans because of his money. rolls eyes Clueless, isn't he? 

Also, next chapter sometime next week... well, that's the plan for now, at least.

And REVIEW! Pretty please with Kai and Tala on top?


	7. Chapter 7

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Beyblade.

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

It was midday. The usually quiet street was filled with a crowd of people. People shouting, people arguing, people trying to get past the police cordon. Desperate reporters were vainly trying to talk to impassive cops. It was absolute chaos. 

Amidst all the confusion and bedlam, no one noticed a sleek, black, very expensive limo slide smoothly into the curb. Nor did they notice the black-clad youth who stepped out and began steadily walking into the chaotic fray. The young man dodged the agitated crowd with practised ease and walked forward until he reached the policemen standing grim guard. The men took in the refined youth approaching them and unconsciously straightened when the boy finally stopped in front of them.

"What do _you_ want?" asked an officer, rudely. The officer who'd spoken continued to look at the kid in front of him, eyes narrowed. A nagging sense of familiarity pricked away at him. He thought for a moment, then shrugged it off. It would come to him sooner or later.

"I would like to speak to your captain, if I may."

"Yeah? You and everybody else. But no can do. Strict orders. So shove off."

Kai's jaw tightened imperciptibly. He said nothing, merely crossed his arms and stared dispassionately at the cop. The object of his gaze fidgeted nervously and fought the urge to step back. There was just something unnerving about the way the crimson eyes glinted...

Kai let the silence stretch on for a few more seconds.

"Officer..." The teen's eyes flickered to the badge pinned on his coat. "...Vasilevich... I would advise you to get your chief out here within the next five minutes before your career as a police officer comes to an abrupt end."

The cop's eyes widened in anger. "Are you _threatening_ me? Who do you think you are, Stalin? Get the hell outta here before I haul your ass to the station, kid!"

The slate-haired teen's stance never wavered, although his eyes flickered briefly in... amusement? The officer shook his head mentally. _Nah._

"Oh no, Officer Vasilevich," A smirk. "I'm merely asking that you show a bit more interest in your professional life. After all, you wouldn't want to be shown the proverbial boot when you get back to the station now, would you? I'm sure Dennis would be _exceedingly_ unhappy if he knew just how his junior officers have treated me."

The officers' eyes widened at the youth's casual use of their chief's first name. _Spoiled rich kid, apparently. Damn._

Kai took out his mobile phone and tapped it absently against his leg. The gesture was not lost on Vasilevich, whose eyes bulged slightly in fury. _Goddamn these loaded brats and their connections._ He had no doubt that the teenager would follow through on his threat. The kid had a formidable aura about him which looked like when he said, "Jump!", people would ask, "How high?". Hmph. He'd probably go yelling to daddy every time someone pissed him off. Piotr Vasilevich, junior officer, fumed before he realized the brat was talking again.

"Oh, and tell your chief..." The mocking amusement in the crimson eyes became more pronounced. "...that Kai Hiwatari would like to see him." With these words, Kai closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed once again, ignoring the dumbfounded looks the cops were giving him. Officer Vasilevich's jaw was hanging open, staring disbelievingly at the aristocratic young man.

A crimson eye cracked open. "Four minutes, officer."

The cop yelped in panic, and was gone in a flash. His heart was racing as he bolted inside the bank. _The hell was **he** doing here? The captain would have a heart attack. I just hope he doesn't kill the messenger. _He winced as he ran. He didn't think twice about the blow to his ego. This was far too important for such irrevelant things like pride.

Piotr Vasilevich was a great many things, but he was not especially stupid. Or cowardly. He just knew when to back down. And this situation was most definitely one of them. There were some basic rules in life. For example, you do not want to hike cross-country at the peak of the winter season. You do not want to take a snarling, fully grown mountain cat as a pet. You do not want to get in between the police bloodhounds and their food during mealtimes.

And one that ranked straight up there with all of those were: You really, _really_ did not want to cross the Hiwatari heir if you wanted to live a long, content life. He had a reputation of being just as ruthless as his grandfather, although with a sense of honour - a somewhat _skewed_ sense of honour, some would say, but he had it nevertheless; that being something that the elder Hiwatari rather spectacularly lacked, skewed or otherwise.

The story of how the teenager had acquired a competitor's company in a major corporate take-over overnight and left the former CEO practically penniless was famous throughout the Russian federation. Apparently the guy was discovered to have been bad-mouthing the teen and raising doubts about the junior Hiwatari's ability to lead such an enterprise as Biovolt. Of course, it came out later that the deposed CEO had been planning to arrange a take-over of Biovolt behind Kai's back.

The fifty year old who had been counting on Kai's inexperience with the business world got a very nasty surprise at the financial savvy of the inscrutable teen. It appeared that Lord Voltaire was not just moulding his grandson into the perfect blader, he was training him to take over the family business too. And Kai learnt his lessons extremely well. The way the crimson-eyed teen had blackballed and blacklisted the hapless ex-CEO and his closest associates had the business world repulsed, yet awed at the show of power by the newest Hiwatari.

After almost a month of searching for favours, calling in debts and every other thing he could think of, the ex-CEO of IP-Tech was found under a bridge, a rope around his neck, body swaying in the evening winds. The once-proud business man had killed himself, unable to face a life without a penny to his name. It was a very good thing that the late ex-CEO was too busy playing corporate games to bother making a family. The everyday people in Russia did not understand why Kai had gone after him with such relentelss, single-minded intensity. But it sent a firm and unmistakeable message to the business world. Everyone who went after any of the numerous Hiwatari enterprises would face the notorious Hiwatari wrath.

To Kai, the guy had been a threat. Someone who had the ability to make things extremely complicated for him in the near future. Complications that he didn't need, particularly at this stage in his life. Therefore, he had to be taken out of the game. Kai was quite satisfied at taking the guy's financial resources and removing the danger to Biovolt. The ex-CEO and his allies could do whatever they wanted, apart from coming back in to the business world. That, Kai would not allow. He'd blacklisted the six men who'd conspired against him with just this goal in mind. He'd won. And he kept his winnings.

When asked about the suicide, Kai's response was a raised eyebrow, and one sentence. "And I should care - why?" That day, Russia learned a very important lesson. You did not mess around with Kai Hiwatari. Ever.

All this was running through the poor junior officer's head as he ran through the small building, frantically searching for the chief of police. He nearly wept with relief when he found Chief Dennis talking to three other cops, clutching an ice pack against his stomach. Piotr ran straight at him, scattering people in his wake and ignoring the indignant cries behind him. He pushed apart the cops standing near the chief and quailed when he met the captain's bewildered gaze. Bewildered, swiftly bordering on annoyed. "Piotr, what is the meaning of this?"

"Captain, captain please, you've got to go out there..."

"Piotr, I have many issues to deal with here, I thought you would be competent enough to deal with the crowds and the press, but it seems I was wrong..."

"No, no, captain, it's him! You've got to get out before he gets me fired..."

"Piotr, stop blubbering. The only person that can get you fired here is me..." The captain glanced at the sweating cop. "... and now it's starting to look like a good idea --"

Piotr nearly stomped his foot in exasperation. "No, captain!", he cut in hurriedly, speaking as clearly as he could in his frazzled state."Kai Hiwatari is out there and he's asking for you! You've _got_ to get there, and soon!"

The captain dropped the icepack he was clutching in suddenly nerveless fingers and licked his newly dry lips. "Are... are you quite sure?"

"Yes, sir, he's out there, scarf and all!"

Captain Dennis Nikolaevich closed his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts, then strode firmly down into the entrance of the bank, his thoughts in a whirl. Just what he needed. He resisted the urge to swear out loud. He was walking straight towards one of the few men - he refused to think of Hiwatari as a _kid_ - he was _extremely_ apprehensive of.

_What on earth did Mr. Richie-rich need?_ He stopped in his walk for a moment when he remembered that Kai Hiwatari was unofficially one of the Demolition boys too. Amidst all his lethal business antics, it was easy to forget that Kai Hiwatari was, in fact, only 18. An 18 year old who also had quite the passion for those spinney-top things. _Oh Jesus_, he thought, as he rubbed his hands together for warmth preparatory to brave the chill winds that permeated Russia all year long. _Why me?_

* * *

Mm-hmm. I'm as surprised as you guys how Kai's character turned out. He came out kinda... ruthlessly cold, didn't he? Well, but he _is_, I guess - that describes Kai to a perfect T. Of course I left out jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but you get the idea. And you know what? I kinda like Kai as a sophisticated business-savvy unrelenting CEO. Gets my heart all a-flutter. :giggles: 

Kind of a short chappie, I know. :shrugs helplessly: I'd originally planned to have Kai's talk with the chief in this chapter, but I got engrossed in building Kai's character. So now that part's in the next one. And Kai meets Tala in Ch. 8!

ps: If you guys have any suggestions regarding the story, I'd appreciate it if you'd write it in the reviews. I only have a vague idea of where this is going, so... yeah. And a big thank you for waiting all this while and not flaming me!


	8. Chapter 8

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Beyblade.

* * *

Chapter 8

A figure leant against a wall, arms crossed and eyes closed, seemingly unaffected by the gaggle of burly cops that surrounded him.

_Kind of hard to come to terms with the fact that someone your son's age holds your whole life in his slender hands, _Chief Dennis mused to himself as he walked down the steps towards the cordon. He shook himself out of his philosophical ramblings as he neared the black clad youth. It wouldn't do to space out now. A man needed all his wits about him when dealing with Kai Hiwatari. He exhaled wearily. He was _not_ looking forward to this.

Tala's irritation was growing to dangerous levels. He was hungry, tired and getting increasingly pissed at the world in general. He'd tried talking to some of the cops swarming around the room, but all of them had given him wary looks, stuttered excuses and scuttled away as fast as they could. He wanted _out_, dammit. The room was growing increasingly stuffy with all the people inside it and he was uncomfortably reminded of the oppressive courtrooms he spent such a lot of time in. He scowled. It was the weekend, the only time he allowed himself _not_ to think too much of lawyers, witnesses and Voltaire. And screw it, he was damned if he was going to start now.

He walked forward purposefully, looking everywhere he could for the chief of police. At least _that_ guy could look at him without cringing. And he had more reason than most. Tala grimaced slightly. He _did_ punch him, after all.

Tala walked over to two policemen who were kneeling down, putting all the guns and various other sharp objects that Tala had liberated from the four robbers into plastic evidence bags. "Excuse me," he interrupted politely.

The two cops looked up, casting him cautious looks. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if I could speak to your chief. Could you tell me where he is?"

The two cops looked at each other for a long moment before one turned back to the teen and shrugged. "He was here until about ten minutes ago. I think he stepped out for a moment."

Tala nodded his thanks as he started to turn away.

"Hey, ki... er, Mr. Ivanov!"

Tala turned back and looked at them enquiringly. The cop who'd called gestured towards the door.

"I'd be careful if I were you. There are a bunch of reporters darting around outside. I'm sure they'd love it if you stepped right in front of them."

Tala smiled at him, a miniscule relaxing of his face and a slight curling of his lips. "Thanks for the heads up, Officer...?"

"Raykov," the man supplied. Inwardly, he was amazed that he was apparently having a civil conversation with one of Russia's most notorious teenagers and actually kinda _liking_ the kid.

"Officer Raykov. I appreciate it."

With a last flicker of gratitude in the cerulean orbs and a nod, Tala turned away and began walking towards the door, calling Wolborg back into his beyblade as he walked on.

The two cops stared at him. Finally, Officer Raykov spoke as he stared at the retreating back. "Of course, he's got a frigging huge _wolf_ right there with him. I kinda feel sorry for the journos who actually try to bother him."

"Yeah," the other cop agreed. "I know _I'd_ cheer wildly if that irritating guy from Channel 3 got his arm sliced off, or something..."

Snickering at the mental image of Wolborg slicing reporters into tiny bits filled the cops' heads as they grinned at each other and went back to their work.

Tala smiled to himself, having heard the last exchange between the two cops. Having great hearing wasn't all that bad. His smile turned into a grin as he heard a last comment from the cop.

"And just who said the kid was crazy, after all? Buncha shrinks? Can't trust 'em at all, 's what I think, sitting on their fat asses all day and giving opinions on people who don't need 'em..." Tala's grin widened. He _liked_ Officer Raykov.

Tala looked doubtfully at the door right in front of him. It almost seemed to beckon to him, offering tantalizing freedom on its other side. Tala could almost see misty arms, ghostly fingers motioning him further... Tala stopped short and shook his head furiously. He needed to pull himself together. Seeing imaginary limbs attached to inanimate objects was _not_ normal. He couldn't afford to let anything get to him at _this_ moment in time.

He resolutely stepped closer to the door. And closer. And closer, till he was pressed right against it. And blinked.

The perimeter was cordoned off with bright yellow police tape. There were a few cops standing around just inside the cordon, only their presence restricting the morass of news crews that were camped on the street outside, to the point of cutting off all traffic. Tala bit back an impressive curse as his eyes roved around, searching for the captain. And focused on a group of cops standing together, slightly away from the melee near the front doors. _Ah. There._

Chief Dennis was standing with his back to Tala, gesticulating wildly, apparently trying to reason with whoever was in front of him. Tala squinted. He couldn't see who the chief was talking to, only that whoever it was had made the cop quite flustered. The chief was waving his arms around like a windmill, and he could see the back of the cop's neck getting redder and redder all the way from where he was standing.

He hesitated. It didn't look like a good time to interrupt, but he really, _really_ wanted to... _Wait. What was..._

He narrowed his eyes and squinted again, searching for something that he couldn't really identify... _There!_ A glimpse of white fabric, twisting in the wind from behind the bodies of the four cops... Not a trenchcoat, it looked more like... a scarf? ...**_Kai!_**

Chef Dennis was at the end of his tether. The conversation was not going anything like he wanted, which was pretty much a guarantee whenever Kai Hiwatari was included in it. However, that didn't mean that he had to _like_ it.

"But we can't possibly let..."

"And why not? You've already found out what happened. I see no reason why he is required to remain in your custody any further."

The cop spluttered feebly. "But..."

Chief Dennis stopped abruptly when the accusing gaze he had been staring into suddenly slid to the side. Exhaling a bit from the brief respite, he turned. And stared into a pair of emotionless ice-blue ones. _Damn._

Tala, however, was looking at Kai. Who stared searchingly at the other teen and raised an aristocratic eyebrow. Tala gazed steadily back at him, his only response a faint smile and a slight inclination of his head. Finally, Kai nodded at the other teen and turned back to the chief.

Who was feeling a bit bewildered at all the silent interaction. _That was it? His friend gets out of a life-or-death situation miraculously, and **this** is how they communicate? _He looked from one teen to the other._ Then again, this is Kai Hiwatari and the leader of the Demolition boys - they're not exactly the poster boys for the average Russian teens..._ But Kai was already talking again.

"He has managed to capture four criminals, without the use of any weapons, _and_ without harming any of the witnesses in there. The criminals, you said, are fine, with no serious injuries. You have taken Tala's statement, and he has done all that he can to co-operate with you. What possible reason can there be in detaining him any longer?"

Cold, crimson eyes bored into his.

Despite himself, he blinked. _No 18 year old should be capable of **glaring** like that..._ He shuddered, and not just from the icy weather. Closing his eyes in defeat, he exhaled heavily. There was no help for it. He'd have to tell all.

"Look, Lord Hiwatari, let's keep this between you and me, but I've had orders from way above to keep _him_ - " He jerked a thumb at Tala. " - here until the brass have talked with him. I dunno exactly _why_ they want to chat, but well..." He shrugged.

'Hm."

"Chief Dennis! Begging your pardon, sir..."

The police chief exhaled in annoyance as he turned to the newest interruption. "What _now?_?"

The young cop only wilted the littlest bit under the chief's piercing gaze. "Er, well... You wanted us to tell you when we found anything of importance, sir..."

"Yeah, and...?"

"Um, we found the security tapes, sir."

"Ah." Chief Dennis relucantly turned back to Kai, glaring at him ineffectively. "I'm gonna take a chance here and guess that you want to see the recording too, hmm?"

Kai's eyes glinted with sardonic amusement as they started trudging back to the bank. "_And_ I want a copy of it."

The Chief snorted once, but otherwise didn't reply. Kai took that as an assent. "I've always thought you were a reasonable man..." he murmured. He thought he heard a scoffed "...reasonable, he says..." from the police chief, but chose to ignore it. His gaze turned to the rookie cop in front of him. "You've seen it?"

The cop nodded energetically. "Very exciting. And Mr.Ivanov here has got a starring role in it." The rookie finished, twinkling eyes interspersed with awe as he half-turned to Tala. Who, however, got the distinct feeling that the young cop was _laughing_ at him. _Now, why would **that** be?_ Tala exchanged a puzzled look with Kai before he remembered what had happened _before_ the bad guys realized who he was... the comments, the looks, the... urgh.

His eyes widened as he realized something. Kai was here, with him. Kai was gonna be seeing the tapes very soon... which meant Kai would see the men flirting with... well, _trying_ to flirt with him... which meant he'd never hear the end of it from the Hiwatari heir. And if, no, _when_ Ian and the guys found out about it... He shuddered. He briefly, but feelingly wondered which diety he had offended so badly for them to screw up his life so.

Meanwhile, Kai was trying to figure out exactly what Tala was thinking about. Whatever it was had made the redhead's eyes go wide in apparent panic. And wait... was that Tala..._ blushing?_

_

* * *

_

:grins: So, how was that? Not _too_ OOC, right? Well, review and tell me what you think!

It's the turn of the rest of the D-boys in the next chapter. If all goes right, they'll all be together by the end of Ch. 9. :crosses fingers and knocks on wood:

I dunno if this chapter will come out right - Quickedit is not letting me preview! Kinda defeats the purpose, methinks... I've been sitting here for the past hour, spraining my fingers clicking on the link to no avail. And it's putting sentences in duplicate... what the heck:-S Damned thing. :glares:


	9. Chapter 9

******Chapter 9**

**

* * *

**  
A group of around five policemen stood in a cramped, windowless room, hunched around a small television, eyes locked on to the tiny screen in front of them. As the screen once again turned blank, loud, excited chatter suddenly filled the small confines of the rec room, each of the men trying to express their opinion in a higher voice than the next. And it was on this noisy scene that Chief Dennis, Kai, Tala and the junior officer walked in on.

The chattering men took no notice of the door opening, or of the steadily darkening expression on the chief's face when he caught sight of the commotion. For the chief, it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. He'd been rudely roused out of his extremely comfortable bed on one of his days off, dragged in the wintry weather to a stuffy bank to discover that one solitary teen had managed to defeat four armed and dangerous men using nothing but his fists and a frigging _wolf_ that appeared on his whim. Then, the upper level people had called him to keep Tala Ivanov in custody until they, themselves could grill him for God knows what. A reason would have been nice, seeing as how Kai Hiwatari calmly walked himself into the midst of the whole mess and started to demand things Chief Dennis was in no position to grant or deny. Now, his junior officers were making him look bad in the presence of said ruthless businessman. He'd had it.  
**  
"QUIET!"**

The police chief bellowed in a most impressive volume. All activity stopped abruptly. Emphatic hand motions were stopped mid-gesture.

_"Now,"_ Chief Dennis bit out, "if you're all done acting like excited seven year olds, I would like very much to see this famous bit of recorded tape." He glared around at his subordinates. A moment passed. "Sometime today, if you don't mind...", he added impatiently, still glaring.

There was a flurry of activity as two of the officers darted forward to fiddle with the outdated equipment and the rest of the cops hastily moved themselves to the very back of the room. Chief Dennis pinched the bridge of his nose while walking forward to stand in front of the T.V, Kai and Tala following closely behind. He had _known _that he'd come to regret his decision of passing over early retirement. He should've grabbed it with both hands when he had the chance, dammit...

Behind the chief, Kai was sneaking glances at Tala. The redhead's cheeks still had a faint flush to them, although his demeanour was still as stoic as ever. To someone who knew Tala as closely as he did, it all but screamed out the fact that the redhead wanted to be anywhere but here. Crimson eyes narrowed speculatively as Kai connected the dots. _Hmm. I wonder just **what** is in that tape..._

Tala himself, was feeling extremely uncomfortable. Here there was a total of _eigh_t people who'd see (or, in the case of the cops except for the chief; already seen) his humiliating encounter. Including Kai. He flinched away from the thought. Maybe if he could launch his beyblade right into the VCR, he could destroy the incriminating evidence. Blue eyes crinkled slightly as he thought about it. He actually _could_ do it... if he angled his launcher just _so_, and with just the right amount of force, there would be no one hurt by flying pieces of VCR, either. It could work, it _could_...

He caught Kai's thoughtful glance towards himself and promptly dropped _that_ particular line of thought. If he knew the phoenix at all, he'd probably already figured out halfway just what Tala was so nervous about. _Dammit_.

Someone switched the lights off. Tala sighed and shifted his posture. _Here we go again..._

* * *

There was silence as the tape wound to an end. The lights clicked back on. Tala was subject to the fascinated gazes of seven men. He resisted the urge to step back behind Kai's protective stance. Their stares reminded him a bit too much of Boris and the team of scientists whenever he'd performed a particularly difficult task after being 'cyberized'. He schooled his features into an impassive mask. He had no intention of reliving all _those_ memories at the present time. Finally, Chief Dennis broke the uncomfortable silence. 

"You were lucky... good thing that you attacked them when you did, Mr. Ivanov... a few more minutes and they would've..." his voice petered out as he stopped short of saying aloud what was on everybody's mind.

_Shot. Killed._ Murdered while defenceless. Next to him, Kai became very still.

As fate would have it, the four robbers had stood right under the videocam mounted on the ceiling. As a result of which, everyone present could clearly see and hear the agitated conversation of the four robbers that culminated in their ultimately deciding to shoot Tala.

"No."

The cops looked at Tala, confused.

"It wasn't luck. I heard them talking."

Bewildered looks were exchanged between the junior officers. Chief Dennis frowned.

"That's not possible, they were standing too far away..."

"Enhanced senses," he replied shortly.

And that was that.

* * *

A short while later, Kai and Tala walked out of the bank, with a copy of the security tape and having assured Chief Dennis that he could contact Tala through Kai. They stayed out of the way of the clustering mass of news crews camped outside and quietly made their way into Kai's limo. Once inside, Kai indicated a thermos flask that had been lying angled against the seat. 

"From Ilya," Kai responded to Tala's questioning look. "Didn't say anything except that it was for you. Although I can venture a guess..."

Kai watched, smiling slightly as Tala slowly started to open the flask, hope brightening the brilliant blue eyes. Tala finally opened the flask and let the rich, unmistakeable odour of freshly brewed coffee escape. He.closed his eyes and breathed in deeply to savour the warm scent before whispering in an almost reverential tone, "I am perfectly willing to remain her slave till the end of my life if she makes me coffee like this everyday."

Kai smirked in amusement as he watched the redhead practically inhale the coffee, mindless of its high temperature. "In withdrawal, I see."

Tala spared him a grin as he turned back to his coffee. "You have_ no_ idea, Hiwatari."

Kai shook his head and took out his cell pone.

"Ian," he replied in response to Tala's enquiring look, dialling as he spoke. "He was pretty worried, " he continued, smiling slightly at Tala's disbelieving snort as he put the phone to his ear.

_"Hello,"_ a harried voice queried. _"Look, whoever you are, you'll hafta call back later, this isn't exactly a good time..."_ In the background, Kai could hear the sounds of a scuffle.

"Spence?"

_"...so bye then...wait, Kai?"_

"None other. What's going on?"  
_  
"Oh, just the usual... is Tala okay?" _

"Yeah, fine. He's with me right now... probably listening in." Tala smirked at him, underlining the accuracy of that observation. Kai rolled his eyes.

Spencer said something in response to that, but it was drowned out by a wave of sound from his end. Kai and Tala regarded each other with raised eyebrows before Tala sighed and said one word. "Ian."

Spencer's voice came on the line again._ "Hey Kai, I'll be back in a mo, 'kay? Something's come up."_ And from the clattering sounds issuing from the cell phone, it sounded like Spencer had dropped the receiver rather unceremoniously on a table somewhere. In the car, both Tala and Kai sat back in weary acceptance and waited for the fireworks. Kai held the phone slightly away from his ear, and well, since Tala could hear voices on the phone pretty well even if they were speaking quietly, it was no trouble at all to hear exactly what was happening there.

A low growl, absolutely seething with suppressed rage. Bryan.

_"Ian, I'm warning you..."_

_"No, not till you promise - no killing them! Or even seriously injuring them! Dammit, Kuznetsov, just promise me and I'll give it back!"_  
_  
"You drop it and I'm gonna carve out your innards with a rusty spoon after gouging out your eyeballs, stuffing them in your mouth, and **then** I'll take out your intestines and hang you with them on a goddamn tree!"  
_  
_"Er, and no killing **me** either... Or Falborg here gets it!" _

"You little..."

There were more sounds of fighting. From the shouts and the yells, it seemed like Bryan had lunged for the Wyborg blader and Spencer had intercepted his tackle. Tala and Kai looked at each other wordlessly. Ian had taken Falborg from Bryan? This was going to new heights, even for the midget ball of mischief that was Ian.

"_You_ can give the eulogy at his funeral." Kai announced flatly.

Then the breathless voice of Spencer came to their ears.

_"Bryan, stop that. Ian, give Falborg back. I'm sure **you** wouldn't be too reasonable either if it was **your** blade that was being held over the toilet bowl."_

Tala choked.

_"No way, Spence, I'm not budging till I got his word - no killing **them**, no killing **me**, and no taking Wyborg away from me." _

"The little shit's demands keep increasing, don't they?" The taut voice of Bryan's disembodied voice floated over the phone. "I'll show him no killing..."

Kai snickered.

_"C'mon, Bry, you like me, really... er, deep, deep, really deep down... you don't mean that, buddy..." _

"Oh, I mean it... give Falborg **back**, you little bastard!"

"Promise me, and I will! Don't... and... and I flush it down the toilet, don't think I won't!"

Tala and Kai stared at each other. It was official. Ian had gone quite mad.

_"**Fine**, you pathetic little excuse for a blader, you win!' _

"Er, does that mean, you **won't** torture me to death? ...Or them?"

There was an audible snarl.

_"Now, take it easy, Bry...,"_ came the soothing voice of Spencer.

_"Okay, okay... I'm giving Falborg to Spence and then... AAAAARRRGGGHHHH! BRYAN! YOU **PROMISED**! SPENCEEERRRR! **HEEEELPPPPP!**"_

_"Get **back** here, you goddamn sneaky son of a..." _

"Bryan! Stop waving that knife around before you end up doing something you regret..."

Maniacal cackling. _"Oh, I don't **think** so, Spence... What the hell did he think he was doing, stealing **my** blade... oooooohhh, look at **this**..."_

There was an almost gleeful sort of amusement in Bryan's voice.

_"Hey Iiii-annnn...,"_ Bryan called out in a sing song voice. _"Did you spend a very **long** time doing your homework?"_

_"Wha... Nooooooo, Bryan, put it downn! Spencerrrrr, make him put it **downnnn**!"_

Tala and Kai exchanged grins at Ian's anguished wail. Looked like Bryan was getting his own back.

"And **Calculus**, no less... I wonder just how many days did it take you to finish **this** batch, hmm?"

"A week! I worked on them for a frigging **week**, so give it!"

"Oh, I think not... let's test a theory of mine..."

"Let's not! **SPENCER**!"

"Don't look at me,** you're** the one who took his beyblade."

"D'you think paper's flammable, Ian? I have my doubts."

A whimper. _"You wouldn't... you know I wouldn't have flushed Falborg, right? Bryan...? **BRYAN!**"_

There was a crackle that suspiciously sounded like burning paper. A patently false sigh.

_"Oh, damn. There goes my potentially award-winning hypothesis." _

**"DIE SCREAMING, KUZNETSOV!**"

Bryan's maniacal laughter echoed in the small confines of the limo, closely followed by Ian's enraged screams. Kai and Tala exchanged a long look, although the effect was a bit ruined by the periodic twitching of Kai's lips and the mirthful grin that adorned Tala's face. A little while later, Spencer's weary voice came back on the line.

_"Sorry about that, Kai, it's just been a little crazy in here since all those people showed up outside."_

"People?" Kai sat up a little straighter. "Is _that_ what Ian was yelling about?"

_"Yeah, not long after Bryan and Ian left to get the newspaper from the kiosk, a buncha people showed up in front of the apartment... reporters, I think, wantng to interview the three of us. Wanted info on Tala, I guess."_

Kai's eyes narrowed. "Are they still there?"

Spencer snorted. _"What do you think? And that wasn't the worst of it."_

"What happened?"

_"You know how Bryan gets about his weekend newspapers, right?"_

And indeed, they knew. Untouched newspapers were to Bryan what coffee was to Tala. It was almost a weekend ritual. Every Saturday morning, after his morning exercises and breakfast, Bryan would go out to the corner store down the road from their apartment and buy the newspaper. Then he'd come back to the apartment and no sound would be heard from him for about two hours. And woe betide everyone who touched the holy newspaper before Bryan finished with it. Sometimes the others would accompany him, as Ian had done that morning.

_"Well, Bry and Ian were coming back when they were... well, ambushed by the journos."_

Kai's voice showed his dawning comprehension. "Don't tell me they..."

Spencer snickered humourlessly. _"Yeah, got it in one. Surrounded the both of them, shoved mikes in their faces and started blabbering. And **then** one of them ripped Bryan's newspaper apart in the confusion."_

Kai and Tala winced in sympathy. "Do I have to call my lawyer about settling assault claims?"

Spencer laughed. _"Actually, no. You can thank Ian for that."  
_  
"_Ian?_ Why?"  
_  
"Annoying little imp he might be, but he thinks fast on his feet. While Bryan was probably choosing the best way to kill the guy, Ian ripped out Falborg from Bry's coat pocket and ran with it."_

"Ohh, so _that_ was what it had all been about..." Kai mused. "Pretty smart of him, actually. I suppose Bryan forgot all about the papers?"

"Well, not completely. He kept screaming about how exactly he'd kill Ian _and_ that other guy all the way back here while he was chasing Ian."

Kai cracked a smile. "I'm sure the reporters loved that."

_"Yeah, I just bet they did. Though I'm pretty sure they don't know just how close they got to having their limbs ripped out."_

"Mm," Kai said as he leant back against the seat. "This complicates things," he muttered, eyes closed. Spencer was quiet, having picked up on the fact that Kai needed to think.

A moment passed.

"Spencer, get Ian and Bry, without anyone seeing any of you, and wait out in front of the traffic light next to the apartment, okay?"  
_  
"Will do. I suppose there has to be** some** use for the fire escapes..."_

"And one more thing..." Kai now looked squarely at Tala, almost daring him to refuse. "Pack enough clothes for a few days. You'll all be living with me until this dies down. See you in twenty minutes." And with that, Kai snapped his cell phone shut.

Tala was quiet, not breaking the stare betweeen him and Kai. Finally he nodded slightly to show his acquiescence. Tala was very independent, but he knew it was probably for the best. Even if he _did_ have to endure Ian's company for a few days.

"Just one thing," he murmured. Kai raised an eyebrow.

"You wouldn't consider burning that duplicate of the tape we got, would you?"

Kai mouth quirked in amusement as crimson eyes glinted mischievously.

"Not for all the gold in the world, Ivanov, not for all the gold in the world."

**

* * *

**

Hope that's satisfactory. Apart from Bry and Ian's er, 'conversation', writing everything else was like pulling teeth. Now that I've posted this, I'm free to concentrate on my exams. Guilt does not for good studying make. To make up for the time, I've made this longer. It's the longest chapter, actually. Think of it as a late Valentine day's gift. :p


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